Schedule

Our 2018 stream restoration and conservation project schedule consists of the following activities. Since our Wisconsin and Michigan projects are three-plus hours’ drive time from Chicago, we try to facilitate carpooling for interested members.

Michigan’s Coldwater River Watershed Council will continue to receive both Oak Brook TU volunteer and financial support in the form of two macroinvertebrate study work days May 19 and in October. The May 19 study will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. with the meeting location at the Tyler Creek Country Club in Alto, Michigan. Our chapter provides the basic field data that goes into the science of conserving the watershed as a coldwater resource. Our work has increased in importance following the disaster in 2015 when an excavation contractor did extensive damage to a long section of the river by removing mature trees and vegetation from the river bank. The effect of the changes in the stream will be measured, in part, by our work. OBTU is represented on the Coldwater River Watershed Council by Marvin Strauch. Contact Marv Strauch to volunteer or for more information.

Volunteers only need to bring a pair of waders for the study and their fishing gear if they choose to take advantage of some excellent Michigan area fishing opportunities. Volunteers are encouraged to plan some local fishing in the area or on the nearby Muskegon and Pere Marquette Rivers.

Beaver Creek in Sparta, WI will be the recipient of lunker structures built during our work day on Saturday, June 23, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers are encouraged to plan some local fishing in the Driftless Area. To volunteer or for more information on this work day, contact Dave Carlson.

Oak Brook TU members will return to the Coldwater River near Alto, Michigan on October 13 to continue the four-year macroinvertebrate survey as part of a Michigan Clean Water Corps grant which commenced in 2014. The October study will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on a Saturday TBD, with the meeting location at the Tyler Creek Country Club in Alto, Michigan.

As with the past spring and fall surveys, audit teams will be formed, and each team will visit one of five sites along the Coldwater River or its major tributaries. Each site will be observed for any physical changes since the June audit. Then samples will be taken by volunteers using D-nets from the various habitat types within each site. Samples will be collected into large pails before each team returns to our base at Tyler Creek Country Club where we will identify and count everything collected. The Saturday morning activity is usually followed by a cookout and the opportunity to do some local fishing. Drive time from Chicago to the Tyler Creek Country Club is about 3.5 hours.

To volunteer for the October 13 Coldwater Study, please contact Marv Strauch at your earliest opportunity if you plan to be attend. (mjstrauchjr@gmail.com; 708-638-1318).

Trout Unlimited is America’s leading coldwater conservation organization. Our hope is that clean, cold, fishable water exists for generations to come, but we can’t do it without the support of committed anglers and conservationists like you.